In James Cameron’s 2009 film Avatar, Pandora is the fictional moon that contains the story’s inhabited biosphere. It orbits the gas giant Polyphemus in the Alpha Centauri star system.
Pandora is home to the Na’vi and to a dense, interconnected ecosystem that includes floating mountains, bioluminescent plants, and unusual wildlife. Humans travel there to mine unobtanium, a valuable fictional mineral, creating the central conflict between industrial exploitation and Na’vi society.
The film’s Pandora is not the mythological container, although its name deliberately evokes mystery and a world containing unexpected dangers. Avatar’s setting is sometimes called a planet in casual conversation, but in the film’s fictional astronomy it is a moon. The movie premiered in 2009 and became known for its extensive use of performance capture and 3D filmmaking.